Berkeley County corn farmer seeing impacts from lack of rain and high temperatures

BERKELEY COUNTY, S.C. (WCBD) – Hot weather has arrived in the Lowcountry, and the high temperatures are impacting plenty including farmers.

The lack of rain and intense heat has impacted one corn farmer in the Cordesville community.

“The day after I got through planting all of this corn I got one inch of rain on it, and I didn’t get any more rain until June. About the middle of June,” he said. At this point, it should be fully grown.

Dupree has been farming for more than 40 years.

He did have the field fertilized in June, but there has not been enough rain to soak all the fertilizer down into the ground. You can see white bits of fertilizer sitting at the base of the corn stalks.

“The silk starts turning brown and they got a little ear like that now, but the silk has already started to turn brown,” he said.

Dupree says once the silk turns brown, that corn doesn’t really grow anymore. He shucked one ear of corn to show me how the cob was too small, and the corn hadn’t even grown out to the end of the cob.

The heat and lack of rain equals disaster for a corn crop.

“Typically, from about mid-July till about mid-September it’s kind of our dead season because it is so hot and dry typically,” said Zack Snipes, Area Commercial Horticulture Agent, Clemson Extension.

Even the crops that did successfully grow, the length of time they can be harvested is dramatically shorter.

“What it did to us in the Lowcountry, as far as fruits and vegetables go, typically we have a pretty long harvest window but because it got so hot and dry, it shortened that window because the plants started getting stressed and so instead of having a six- or eight-week season on a crop we were having a two-to-four week season,” said Snipes.

Fortunately, Dupree does have crop insurance, which will allow him to at least help recoup some of his costs.

“If you don’t like farming, you won’t farm. It’s got to be in your blood, or you’re not going to do it. Because it’s very expensive- equipment is very expensive and it’s a big risk. A young person, I don’t see how they’ll ever be able to farm,” said Dupree.

Depree said he plans to try again next year.